When asked what pushed them to disclose their illegal status by starting a strike, many immigrant workers simply reply: when we have nothing to start with, what exactly do we have to lose?

In Paris and its surrounding suburbs, workers without papers are entering the second month of their strike. They are asking for what they feel is rightfully theirs: being able to work and reside legally in France and the recognition that their presence as a workforce is not only beneficial to the economy, but also sorely needed. Many have received support from the CGT, one of France's most prominent unions, which has already helped a couple of hundred workers, but much more claim that applying for a permit without the help of a union leaves them powerless and unsure as to whether their demand will even be considered.

To obtain regularisation, illegal immigrants need the support of their employer. A new law, voted through last winter, offers the chance for workers to be recognised, if the company demands it and if the sector in which they are working cannot easily recruit legal job seekers.

Unsurprisingly, illegal workers are employed by companies exploiting their status, knowing their employees can be on call 24 hours a day for salaries as low as €400 (£310) per 100 hours of work and are in no position to complain: since the conflict started, many managers made it clear that an immediate replacement for each striker would be easy to find. Considering the threat of expulsion hanging over them, the courage those workers are currently displaying by coming out and deciding to fight is remarkable.

These immigrant workers are the ones we rarely see and barely acknowledge, an invisible segment of the population none the less bearing the brunt of harsh conditions in an industry which cannot survive without them. They are part of a new working class, waking up at ungodly hours to clean our streets and offices. They are the nannies many well-off families employ to take care of their children after school, the care workers at the bedside of incapacitated persons who cannot stay in their homes without some outside help, the hotel maids who are given impossible daily working targets. Some of them have been working in France for years, if not decades, raising their families in a country likely to send them back without notice to a place they no longer call home.

Perhaps the most encouraging thing about this new movement is the fact that it is increasingly made up of women, who recently decided to mobilise themselves as a lobbying group and step out of the darkness. It is a difficult role for them to take on, since women are largely responsible for their family's wellbeing and risk everything by admitting to being illegal.

They all mention the never-ending fear of being forcefully sent back to their countries, keeping in mind the tragic death of Chunlan Liu-Zhang, an illegal resident from China who died after she jumped out of her window when the police knocked on her door, or the case of Mickael Bekay, a 16-month-old baby who spent two weeks in jail with his mother Bemenga, an illegal immigrant from the Democratic Republic of the Congo who had lived in France for seven years.

The decision to not only push immigrants away, but to gather them and send them back to the borders is simply not viable. However, Sarkozy's government set a yearly deportation quota of 25,000 immigrants to be tracked down, detained and sent away, often at the inhumane price of separating families or shamelessly arresting children and teenagers in front of their own schools.

Taking such a hard line of action is a dramatic mistake made not only at the expense of immigrants, but of the French public as well. The government is conveniently oblivious to some key facts: its population's age is rising, unskilled jobs need to be filled and cheap labour is needed. This isn't just a French dilemma, as European data shows that Europe's current demographic decline will cost the EU 20.8 million workers between 2005 and 2030, a drop of 6.8%. This workforce will need to be replaced. As it stands, France just cannot afford its rampant xenophobia when it comes to immigration.

If Sarkozy wants to stay true to his word and boost the economy, he needs to regularise illegal immigrants in an attempt to address both France's bleak demographic picture and most importantly, the future of its ageing population's future which needs to be cared and paid for. Instead of pushing back the retirement age and putting the 35-hour working week reforms in the bin, French people should welcome young workers and their families to live up to what France should be: a grateful and humane host country.